This invention relates generally to medical apparatus and more specifically to devices for relieving pain due to medical conditions, injuries, ailments, infirmities, or the like.
Millions of people suffer from pain everyday due to conditions such as injured tendons, ligaments and muscles, sprained or twisted joints, arthritis, headaches, tendinitis, tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, and other painful ailments. Many of these ailments have no treatment but to block the pain until the condition heals itself.
There are two major methods of treating pain. One method uses drugs, taken either orally or by injection, to block or deaden the pain. The second method uses some sort of physical therapy to eliminate the source of the pain or to block the pain.
Because of the many perceived disadvantages of drugs and the advantages of physical therapies, more and more people are turning to physical therapies to relieve their pain. These alternative physical therapies include chiropractic care, massage therapy, acupressure, acupuncture, hand and foot reflexology, muscle therapy, and other physical therapies. The advantages of these therapies include reduced cost, home treatment, self treatment, and sometimes, improved result.
Many devices existing to relief pain use the concepts of physical therapy. However, most of these devices have drawbacks which limit their effectiveness.
One class of devices which are sometimes used to relieve pain are sports type elastic bandages. These bandages typically consist of a long strip of stretch material with metal fasteners for securing the stretch material to itself. A sports type elastic bandage is wrapped snugly around an injury, such as a knee or elbow, to support the ligaments, tendons, or muscles. They are also used to support sprains, strains, and to provide support during strenuous activities.
Sports type elastic bandages have several disadvantages. They are not easily adjustable since they must be unwrapped and re-wrapped to adjust the tension. Second, the metal fasteners can be uncomfortable. Third, sports type elastic bandages can bind and gouge into a person's body. Finally, they are not designed specifically to block pain. Sports type elastic bandages are primarily designed for supporting an injury to promote healing of the injury and therefore are not effective at blocking pain. The reason that they do not block pain is that sufficient tension is lacking to achieve pain relief; also, the width of the bandage is excessive for localized tension.
These types of bandages are available commercially from several sources. ACE.RTM. brand sports bandages are available from Becton Dickinson & Company, Franklin Lakes, N.J. SELFGRIP.RTM. brand sports bandages are available from LMA, Ltd., S. Norwalk, Conn.
Another type of bandage device is known as a rib belt. Rib belts are designed for supporting injured ribs. These devices use a wide strip of elastic material which is wrapped around a patent's rib cage and fastened to itself with hook and loop type fasteners.
Rib belts are too big for many applications. Further, the device tends to fold and cut into a user making it very uncomfortable. Finally, the material and construction used in rib belts make them too weak to work well as a pain blocking device.
One brand of rib belts is available from Acorn Development Cos., Inc., Newark, N.J. and is known by the Trademark CAREX.RTM..
Both sports bandages and the rib belts primarily provide support and protection for an injury, thus allowing the injury to heal. They may also avert further injury or pain by immobilizing and protecting the injured area. They are not designed nor are they intended to function primarily as a pain relieving device.
Support gloves are yet another device known in the art. Support gloves fit snugly over the hand and are often made of elastic material. These gloves provide some pain relief from pain in the hands, however, they are too weak and provide too little support to be completely effective. In addition, these gloves make it virtually impossible to use the hand in a work situation and cannot be readily laundered.
There continues to be a need for a device which provides effective pain relief without the use of drugs or other expensive treatments and is easily self administered.
Clearly, there exists a need for a medical device which relieves pain, is simple and inexpensive, can be self administered, and uses no drugs.